OMG science
fromArs Technica
1 day agoNew fossil deposits show complex animal groups predating the Cambrian
Ediacaran species reveal early animal diversity, including cnidarians and ctenophores, pushing back the timeline of their origins.
It was a bonnie morning 410 million years ago in what are now the Rhynie chert fossil beds in Scotland. The mists had begun to lift and swirl over the landscape, where hot springs burbled, lichen papered over rocks, and worms slithered as only worms can. Here, almost all life stayed close to the ground. The second-tallest organism at the time, a plant called , grew to a few centimeters at most.
These footprints represent the oldest evidence of amniotes on the planet, indicating their evolution occurred about 40 million years earlier than previously thought.